Drink Up! Coffee May Prevent Blindness and Deteriorating Eyesight

If you like drinking coffee, then there may be some good news as far as what it does for your health. In addition to the jolt of energy you get from the beverage, you may also be getting the added benefits of preventing deteriorating eyesight and possible blindness from retinal degeneration.

The retina is a thin tissue layer on the inside, back wall of the eye. It possesses millions of light-sensitive cells and nerve cells that receive visual information. This is also one of the most metabolically active tissues; it demands high levels of oxygen, which makes it prone to oxidative stress. In fact, a lack of oxygen can cause the production of free radicals which leads to tissue damage.

So why can coffee help your eyes? That's a good question. Raw coffee is, on average, just 1 percent caffeine. However, it contains about seven to nine percent chlorogenic acid, which is a strong antioxidant that's been shown to prevent retinal degeneration in mice.

"Coffee is the most popular drink in the world, and we are understanding what benefit we can get from that," said Chang Y. Lee, one of the researchers, in a news release.

While this latest study reveals that coffee could potentially help your eyes, that's not the only benefit of the beverage. Previous research has shown that coffee could cut the risk of diseases such as Parkinson's, prostate cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and age-related cognitive declines.

The findings are important for understanding the impacts of this beverage on health-something that's doubly important considering how popular it is. In this case, though, it looks like it can only help-as long as you drink it in moderation. So if you like coffee, then drink up. You may be improving your health quite a bit by imbibing.